John Schneider has not been very lucky with a lot of his big trade acquisitions, but he is betting – as he had to – that Leonard Williams will become the second successful extension out of the five he has made since 2010.
The Seahawks sent a 2024 second-round pick and 2025 fifth-rounder to the New York Giants for Williams last October, and they managed to re-sign him on Monday to a three-year deal worth $64.5 million.
Continue reading Will Williams be a rare trade extension win for Schneider?As Pete Carroll is fond of saying – and said again Monday morning – the Seahawks “are always competing.” But, every three years or so, you can count on John Schneider going for it even bigger than usual.
On Monday, Schneider pulled off his first deadline deal since 2020, acquiring Pro Bowl defensive lineman Leonard Williams from the New York Giants in a bid to further strengthen Seattle’s ascending defense. It’s a move that puts even more pressure on Geno Smith to play mistake-free football.
Continue reading Leonard Williams trade makes good defense better, puts pressure on Geno
You can’t blame Sheldon Richardson and Tom Johnson for having axes to grind Monday night against the Seahawks — who, by the way, could have used either guy this season.
To recap why the defensive tackles are displeased with the Seahawks: Seattle lowballed Richardson before free agency and cut Johnson in September.
Continue reading ‘Terrible’ offer & ‘business decision’ motivate ex-Hawks
The good news: The Seahawks don’t have to play in Denver and Chicago during the winter. The bad news: They have to open with consecutive road games.
The opener in Denver and the Monday night game in Chicago in Week 2 mark the third time since 2011 the Hawks have started with two straight road games. They opened 0-2 in both 2011 and 2015.
Seattle’s 2018 schedule is weighted toward road games early and home games late: The Seahawks play five of the first seven on the road and four of the final five at home (three in prime time).
They have five prime-time games — four in Seattle, where the Hawks are 17-2 in night games (including playoffs) under Pete Carroll. They are 26-5-1 in prime time overall under Carroll.
The Seahawks are working hard to refortify their defensive line. And it looks like it might all hinge on what they think of Ndamukong Suh.
Seattle secured four linemen Wednesday, retaining Dion Jordan, Quinton Jefferson and Branden Jackson on tenders and adding Barkevious Mingo, who is expected to fill Bruce Irvin’s old role as a linebacker and pass rusher. The team also set up a visit with defensive tackle Quinton Dial.
But the Seahawks are after bigger fish, if they can get one. The D-tackle market has been relatively slow to move, and the Seahawks obviously hope to take advantage of that as they talk with Suh and Sheldon Richardson.
No surprise: John Schneider didn’t want to gamble with the franchise tag.
Five teams use the keeper tool (and Chicago used the transition tag), but Seattle declined for the eighth straight year — choosing not to lock in Sheldon Richardson.
Schneider will try to re-sign the defensive tackle before free agency, but he obviously was leery of tendering Richardson for $13.9 million — and thus setting the negotiating floor there. And Schneider obviously wasn’t interested in the other potential benefits of tagging, which we outlined.
Continue reading As expected, Schneider is letting Sheldon go
John Schneider has been a gambling man plenty of times in the past, and here’s a gamble he really needs to make today: Use the franchise tag on Sheldon Richardson.
Schneider has a base 75 percent chance of winning a tag gamble. The only negative would come if Richardson insisted on signing and playing on the $13.9 million tender. That seems very unlikely, which leaves three winning scenarios for Schneider: (1) Strike a long-term deal, (2) trade him for a Day 2 pick (and something else), (3) rescind the tag, let Richardson leave in free agency and end up with a high comp pick in 2019.
At the Combine last Friday, Schneider said he needed to “figure out how to compensate” for Seattle’s gaping hole on Day 2 of the draft. Trading 32-year-old Michael Bennett won’t do it. But tagging Richardson likely would — whether he stays or goes.
John Schneider is focused on moving younger players into the Seahawks’ lineup, which is why he is willing to move aging stars.
Two of his big points Friday at the Combine were about (1) trying to find a way to bridge the big draft gap created by the “go for it” injury-replacement deals for Sheldon Richardson and Duane Brown and (2) getting recent draft picks to pull their weight.
Schneider also said he wants to keep Richardson (he met with his agents Thursday night) but was not planning “at this point” to use the franchise tag on him by Tuesday’s deadline. “We have time,” he said, “but we have more people that we have to talk to this weekend. We’re not done with all our meetings.”
“Everybody’s talking to everybody” — Pete Carroll
That about sums up the state of affairs at the Combine, although Carroll was talking specifically about Earl Thomas there.
Carroll revealed very little about Seattle’s direction with contracts, trades and free agents, but he offered a few little nuggets.
Among the tidbits: He has talked to Thomas; John Schneider is talking to other teams about possible deals; the franchise tag is still an option for Sheldon Richardson; the team has talked to DeShawn Shead about playing safety again; Carroll has not talked to Michael Bennett; and Carroll would love to keep Jimmy Graham (and every free agent).
It’s looking more and more like the Richardsons will indeed join Jimmy Graham in departing Seattle next month and Legion of Boomers Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas will not be going anywhere.
Here’s the latest on those guys and more free agency scuttlebutt:
A report from NFL Network confirmed what we have said all offseason: It doesn’t look like either Sherman or Thomas will be traded. Sherman has no value while rehabbing his torn Achilles and the Seahawks would prefer a long-term deal with Thomas, unless they get a great offer.
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 